I'm back with another interview with a concept artist for Captain America: The Winter Soldier! Find out how much they took from the comics, what's up with Steve Roger's apartment and how Nazis inspired the artwork.

Recently, I had a wonderful interview with one of the concept artists of Captain America 2. A self-proclaimed "art geek" James Carson is a professional concept artist who's worked on Hollywood films like Tim Burton's Superman Lives, Spider-Man(2002)andX-Men: First Class(2011).

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Maurice Mitchell: Thanks for taking the time James. So, you worked on a whole bunch of things for this film, but what did you spend a lot of time working on?James Carson: I spent the most amount of time developing the Triskelion which is the S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters.

MM: The Triskelion has been a feature of the Ultimates comic books since 2002. Was there anything that you took from the source?
JC: We used the comic references sparingly. It seemed like
many of the comic book images were more of a futuristic type design.
Production Designer Peter Wenham felt early on that the Triskelion
should be grounded in modern day sensibilities, and also
representational of what S.H.E.I.L.D. had become, which is this huge
powerful entity unto itself. So we really keyed off of Brutalist and
Nazi architecture. Just big and brutal, and fortress-like.

Early on were developing it as modular, fortress type
shapes, but we weren't bringing out the "tri" in the Triskelion, which
the comics have done quite successfully. One of the story points in the
comic and just the name itself implies that it's made up of three basic
systems, so we incorporated the three pillared cylinder as the
centerpiece into the design.

MM: You also worked on Captain America: The First Avenger. What was difference about the design of this film versus the original?
JC: The first one was more of a throwback WWII war flick. Winter Soldier is
more today and is bold enough to touch on some relevant issues. It was
fun to support the story of both. Steve Roger's begins to question what
it was to be a true patriot. Is it to blindly support the face of the
government (or what was masquerading as government) or to support what
you feel is right?

MM: So this is obviously a sequel to the first film, but has a very different feel. Is there anything that is a carryover from the first film?
JC: Well, Steve Rogers woke up 50 or 60 years later and is in a completely
different world from the 1940s. So, we're dealing with how the world has
changed.

For instance his apartment is kind of unsettled. He hasn't
really unpacked anything. He doesn't feel moved into his apartment and
his world. That was a conscious design decision. It was supposed to feel
unsettled and uncomfortable.

MM: Was there anything especially challenging to design in the film?
JC: It was a pleasure to work with production designer Peter Wenham. He was
very in tune of the direction this film should take visually. And so it
was in many ways easy to be an extension of that. He was very clear
about the direction he wanted to go. At that point it was kind of fill
in the blanks. We were never really searching for a theme or a design
language.

MM: Now that Marvel Studios films have been in production for so many years and you've worked on more than one Marvel film. Have you noticed any changes to the process that have streamlined it?
JC: It has changed as technology has shifted. The art department is more
collaborative with the different entities. Illustrators, set designers,
Previz, or Art Directors are creating and sometimes take the first
crack at design. A number of years ago, the development for a film like
Captain America would typically always begin with the concept artists.
There are so many more tools available now there is sometimes more back
and forth. In fact, on the Triskelion design I worked quite a bit with
3D set designer Dave Moreau. So I would develop some stuff and then
send it to him, and he would develop more, and send back to me, etc
etc. We'd go back and forth quite a bit. Back in the old days that
wouldn't happen as much. You would be given an assignment from start to
finish. So, yes. It's much more collaborative.

MM: So this has been a great interview James. What project did you work on that's coming out in the near future?
JC: I just finished San Andreas (2015), a disaster film starring the Rock. I spent most of the time messing
with San Fransisco. I grew up in the Bay area and am very familiar with
the city. So it was kind of fun destroying my home town.

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What is Film Sketchr?

This blog is about the often unseen world of concept design and storyboarding in science-fiction films and television. These artists work to bring the vision of the writer and director to life. My hope is you'll learn a little bit more about them. If you're an artist I hope you find inspiration from the talented artists featured.

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